Romney protests that he is not legally obliged to release any tax returns. Of course not. He is no longer in the realm of the private sector, though, where he can comply with the letter of the law with the Securities and Exchange Commission and leave it at that. Perceptions matter.

Romney may feel impatience with requirements that the political culture imposes on a presidential candidate that he feels are pointless (and inconvenient). But he’s a politician running for the highest office in the land, and his current posture is probably unsustainable. In all likelihood, he won’t be able to maintain a position that looks secretive and is a departure from campaign conventions. The only question is whether he releases more returns now, or later — after playing more defense on the issue and sustaining more hits. There will surely be a press feeding frenzy over new returns, but better to weather it in the middle of July.

If he releases more returns, Romney will be in a better position to resist the inevitable demands for even more disclosures. More important, he will be in a better position to pivot his campaign to what should be its focus — telling a story, through a series of detailed, substantive speeches, about where he wants to take the country. It is to President Obama’s advantage to fight the election out over tactics and minutiae. By drawing out the argument over the returns, Romney is playing into the president’s hands. He should release them, respond to any attacks they bring, and move on.

Gov. Rick Perry held a rare Austin press conference today in which he hit President Barack Obama on a few points that ranged from economics, to college transcripts, to Medicaid.

…

Perry also deflected a question about Mitt Romney, the presumptive Republican nominee, not releasing a full folder of tax records. Perry criticized Obama for not releasing his college and law school grades.

The AP has updated its earlier story, now saying Perry was calling for transparency from all candidates, and not specifically from Romney:

AP tweaks Perry story: "Corrects to show that Perry calls for transparency for all candidates, not that he does specifically for Romney"

In remarks to reporters Tuesday, Perry didn’t specifically call on Romney to release more tax returns. But Perry said that anyone running for office should give people what he called “backgrounds,” including tax returns, if asked and if the requests are within reason.

Funny how a few sentences can change a story completely. Slick move, AP.

Meanwhile, we’re still waiting for MSM-ers and their lackeys to tweet out corrections of their own: